Sorry Sorry Sorry

Yesterday Blogger screwed up. Anyways, 9/15. Majority! Nice English Language Paper, was going to write the descriptive essay but story idea popped in so wrote that one. Horribly lengthy History paper. Next session going to be shortened. Adjustment in process for shifting to Jan-Dec session from current Apr-Mar. So coming session Apr-Feb, after that Mar-Jan, so that next can be Jan-Dec.

Fifteen, sorry

That was 5/15, not 5/17. We have fifteen exams in total. And now it's 7/15. Yay. Maths Paper I (Arithmetic) was so easy. I loved it. Bengali Literature was easy to answer but so extremely lengthy that we had to cut down on explanations. Nearly none of the questions were demanding short to-the-point answers. All in the range of 4 to 8 marks per question. 1 mark question means 1 line, but 4 marks always means half a page, or half a mark. And then there were those monstrosities carrying 7 and 8 marks and demanding more than a full page. Mind you, exam pages in my school are register-sized. And you should've seen the devilish delight on the face of our teacher when we reported back to her about the exam. We heard from the girls who take Hindi that the Hindi Literature paper was equally bad. Holy-moly, is this the famous class-8 slashing we hear about? Are we now in the middle of the very horror that creeped into our hearts and stole our souls away slowly as we crept up through middle school? Suffering, crying, praying, begging to be free, to be let into the freer realm of true ICSE knowledge and school domination. Class 9... oh. When I get older...

Biology and Geography

5/17 exams over. Biology slightly screwed up, Geography no idea what'll happen.
Day after tomorrow: Maths I (Arithmetic), Bengali Literature. Gotta study, gotta study, gotta go!

Wish me luck

Tomorrow's the 2nd levels of the Naitonal Science Olympiad and the International Mathematics Olympiad conducted by SOF. Plus yesterday's exams didn't go too well, as you know I can't stand those subjects, but though yay, yay, yay! Last EE and GK exams, heh heh. And Monday commences exams proper, with the most terrifying theory-plus-practical-in-two-hours thing we have for Biology, followed by Geography, with its maps, interesting facts, boring teacher, horrible teacher. Hobble bobble wobble, students all topple.

Bless Me

I'm up late with my computer and I have an exam of EE and GK tomorrow. And today we had 80 minutes to finish our SUPW exam while the other section had a whole two hours. We didn't finish, teacher says she'll judge by number of elements shown to be considerate, and I was going all good girl, not cutting down on the asked length and missed out on showing the ending technique of the shawl. Just a D, please.
I'm in such a horrible situation. God-and-whatever-else-influential, bless me.

More Awesome Webcomic Sites!

Candorville, Perry Bible Fellowship, Questionable Content;
The last two I came to know of from the great xkcd; first one through the famous The "Blog" Of "Unnecessary" "Quotation" Marks, when its author linked to a related comic on it.

Wallpaper 24

The result of some whimsical Photoshopping, coming before the public eye long after its birth.

The original size looks much better. The thumbnail looks nothing like it, believe me.

Night, loud music, false relief

10:30 pm is the latest I've ever begun my daily sitting with my computer. I spent the rest of the evening finishing my General Knowledge syllabus. Stupid, stupid subject. In our subjective and narrow-minded education system, a broad subject like that, which brings up a lot of ambiguity into assessment, has no place. Thank heavens Grade 8 is the last time we're studying it.
Today there was a sitar concert that maybe I would've visited if my state of mind would've been any better than this murky mess I'm in. The loud music from a nearby wedding is not helping, especially because they are playing very popular songs wrong -- the cheap local band is playing those songs wrong that I can hum in my sleep, and is pulling my attention away from work. Also, they are way outside the public sound curfew, that is 10 pm. Nowadays many weddings and private ceremonies are doing this, in addition to public festivities and club parties. No one is stopping them; everyone knows how much trouble that sort of protesting can land you into.
I'm done with studying the first exam day's subjects: EE and GK; but I am somewhat relieved, as they are the most uninteresting to study. However, the relief is hardly rational, as I have a whole heap of studies left to do.
As I type, I'm way past bedtime, and the music is still irritating me as I race to keep up with my blogging routine. And you expect me to write something better than a simple update of my humdrum student life?

Saraswati Puja, Bio practical, Studying

Yesterday was the day when we worship the Goddess of Learning, Saraswati. All Bengali girls dress up in the traditional sari for the occasion. Like every year, I too wore a sari, and kept my books before the Goddess. After the Puja at my place, I visited some other Pujas. Last festival before exams, bleh.
Must submit 1/4th of a chart paper tomorrow, which we shall use on the day of the Biology exam for practical work if we are told to display the morphology and the structure of the shoe-flower (Hibiscus rosa-sinensis). I'm hoping I get the potato osmoscope question, though. It's easier. But then it involves more writing.
Must study! Bio syllabus is a hazard to life. We have to study half of it on our own, teacher says there's nothing in there to explain; I tell you there damn is! There's more to a subject than mugging up and scoring on one exam. What about when we'll have to apply that knowledge again?
Sorry for the short updates, I don't have much time on my hand at the moment.

Old drawings on Paint --2

Two more of the drawings I made in Paint as a kid.

One of my first tries at sceneries on Paint, black bg added later

One more of the previous kind, only a floral this time

Small update

I don't have enough time to write something good, so I'll just give out news about life and call it a day. 

The time table is out, and it has upturned the hourglass and brought the exam feeling straight home to us. 

In other news, the International Mathematics Olympiad are out. I hadn't expected much, as on the day of the exam our papers had arrived late and we had answered in less than the allotted time; however because everyone in the school faced the same trouble, though my rank wasn't within 500 (International 1477) I was selected for second level as the School Topper. Hope I can do better there. The issue with my NSO roll number is not completely resolved yet; there was no confusion regarding my IMO roll number, however many others faced problems. The local in-charge has been authorized to make the corrections to my NSO roll number at the local exam centre, so I hope it all smooths out. 

Also, I have my NCO second levels tomorrow; wish me luck!

Old drawings on Paint --1

There was a time, from my early days with computers in kindergarten to the day I learnt Photoshop, when I was very, very fond of doing my art on MS-Paint. I made loads of drawings -- some silly, some a little wiser. Some sensible and thought-out, some whimsical, some mere learning exercises.

Even today, when I look at those drawings I get a warm, fuzzy feeling in my heart; somewhat like nostalgia, except I don't use that word as it makes me sound triple my age. :D

They are an important part of my growing up, just like every other way of expression I've used to let my feelings out; however immature those feelings might have been. That is why, I decided to share them, where people who share my thoughts can have a look. Here's the first batch of them; feast your eyes. I changed computers, so I don't exactly have the chronological order, so they're going to be up randomly. It's a pity Blogger doesn't take .bmp files, so I had to convert them.

Writing in Bengali translates
as 'butterfly'

Shaky attempt at trying out my
hand-drawn designs on Paint

Translates as 'little girl', was the name
of my doll whom I tried to draw here

Happy New Month

Ah well. So the official period for which you can be forgiven for putting down the previous year instead of the current one is over. Till next 31st December, writing 2010 instead of 2011 will be a crime. And it should be, for the same reason Malawi is considering the criminalization of farting: because we need 'mould a responsible and disciplined public'. Not a bunch of idiots who make mistakes in dates. Or on dates. Or while eating dates, for that matter.
That said, the fact that doesn't have a comforting reason trailing behind is that as soon as 2012 comes along, writing '10 for '11 won't be a crime any more; the action of writing '11 for '12 will fill the position vacated, receiving therewith, all associated benefits and entitlements. Another comfort-less (uncomfortable?) fact is that at this moment, replacing '12 with '11 inadvertently will not be considered anything more than a tiny mistake. So, the only mistake made criminal is the one concerning the present year. (or ? or ! if you so wish).

Drab, I know.

While some may interpret this extremely concentrated focus on the present as lack of respect for the past and  lack of long-sightedness, many others will consider this to be one of the things happening right in this god-forsaken society and argue that the past and the future deserve less attention, being as out of our control as they are. Not that the present is always in our control (depends on how small a time interval you consider 'now', that is delta t, says Physics... never mind); but it is surely much more tame than the past and the future. Thus the obsession with accuracy when it comes to the present, and the flippancy when it is the past's or the future's turn.
Being a rather philosophical soul, I feel like agreeing with the second group, but my logical side stops me. Damn it, a year is too wide a time interval! You can't control it! You can't consider it the present! And there, as usual I'm on neither side, and both sides have their guns levelled at me. At least that way I actually prevent disputes and unify people; makes me feel good about myself in an alter-ego superhero kind of way, sigh.
Coming back to the Delta T Dispute: though my inability to come to a decision irritates me to no end, I shall turn optimistic for now and plead to remind everyone that the January relaxation is a welcome breath of fresh air, and a temporary compromise good enough for people like me to live with. Let's not forget that the past is history, the future is a mystery, and the present is a gift; and like Master Oogway (turtle in Kung-fu Panda, remember?) very wisely added, that is why it is called the 'present'.
And yes, like Spiderman once said, with great power comes great responsibility... oh wait, that's off topic.